The Lay of the Conqueror
by Phantom Bard
Summary: A Lay (Webster's) is "a short narrative poem intended to be sung, especially one of a primitive heroic nature." Teaser for "Clonefic Part 3".


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The Lay of the Conqueror 

(Author unknown, circa 42 **BC**)

1** Come** to me at twilight when the shadows fill the shade,

Caressing all the world with night, so gently day to fade.

Then gift me O my goddess, with a song for every age,

And let me sing it truthfully upon this mortal stage.

---

I'll tell of things to shape our world in centuries to come,

When men shall fly, the earth unite, and speak with anyone.

They crafted like Hephaestos, and in hubris knew no shame,

Until they raised an ancient curse, the long lost Hellenes' Bane.

---

Lament the fate of future days in Wisdom's power snared,

Both mortal and immortal caught, by Science none were spared.

She germinated veiled plots, waged wisdom's frontless war,

Unseen and unsuspected, ever lurking at its core.

--- 

2 **Come** to me at morning as the clouds don Eos' hues,

Waking Helios' bright blessing, to prophesize my news.

Then gift to me the wisdom unlike those across the sea,

Not to necromance the living in lives never meant to be.

--- 

I'll sing a requiem for souls borne out of place and time,

For those not born of mothers, hapless victims of Her crime.

But like Cronos to Uranus, and then mighty Zeus in turn,

The clones slew their creator and with hatred watched her burn.

---

Lament these souls from ages past, adrift in future days,

Assailed by all its madness, unaccustomed to its ways.

They gave the world that which they knew, hard won in days of yore,

Until they found their enemy, the proud Goddess of War. 

--- 

3 **Come** to me in darkness where Persephone is blind,

Interring all the world with night that's deeper than a mine.

Then into hidden places where discoveries are made,

Await such scenes of horror to make mortal conscience fade.

---

I'll sing to you of motherhood frustrated yet again,

A daughter slain, a sacred pyre, an oath of blood begins.

And then upon a heartbeat, yet a greater blow was borne,

A pair entwined was sundered and from love a heart was shorn.

---

Lament the souls of ancients ground 'neath battle's heated steel,

When Cupid's flush was sacrificed and broken on the wheel.

Now heart of fire to heart of ice, a living heart to mourn,

O Phobos, Deimos, Nemesis, your equal has been born. 

---

4 **Come** to me when winter's snow lies thick upon the ground,

Cloaking all the world in white and shrouding every sound.

Then gift me with a peace so still, all's frozen as in death,

And the only hint of living is the billow of my breath.

---

I'll sing to you of battle fought on ground within a soul,

When men and gods contested 'neath the sacred olive's bole.

Medusa bearing aegis facing He of reddened spear,

In sibling conflict rampant ran through every mortal year.

---

Lament now for this future time, its doom so close at hand,

God's blood, God's blessing, frozen soul, an army soon shall stand.

With will of iron and sword of steel, the Hellenes' Bane arose,

And strode a disbelieving world whose time had reached its close.

---

5 **Come** to me in summer when Apollo's disc doth reign,

Blazing through the heavens and inciting warfare's flame.

Then gift to me a conquest with all lands bent to my will, 

When all earth's nations bow to me, Nike proclaims my skill.

--- 

I'll sing to you of destiny, of fighters all the same,

Each born of one, yet from no womb, in the Destroyer's name.

As Eos rose to battle's call upon that fateful hill,

Then 'neath Helios they vanished, bright ichor and blood to spill. 

---

Lament now all ye nations, for the past has come to be,

A path not taken long ago lost to eternity.

But on that day of glory even Clio held her breath,

When the Strategos set Day's Chakram to bright Athena's neck.

---

6 **Come** to me with hidden light, illuminate my soul,

Transforming rage and darkness there while thawing out the cold,

Then gift to me an answer I could change the world with,

And we'll live to seek our future in those ancient days of myth.

---

I'll sing to you of healing and of two hearts lost and found,

And of a war that never was, fought on enchanted ground.

'Till timeless love rekindled as the earth went up in flame.

And history repeated what had ever been the same.

---

Lament no more O nations bright, your life has been redeemed,

Through changes wrought by heroes only Mnemosyne esteemed.

The past through present sacrifice has been their just reward,

Eternal soulmates proved the heart is mightier than the sword.

---

7 **Come** to me in Elysia where we'll sip the nectar sweet,

Rejoicing there together on the day Fate bids us meet.

Then gift to me your loving heart I need more than my own,

And all the blood and all the pain will finally have flown.

---

I'll sing to you of lifetimes in a never-ending row,

Shared reincarnations the Moirae promised long ago.

And so one day we'll take up our mortality again,

Bearing witness to a future world where we've already been.

---

Lament no more upon that day the blood spilled by your hands,

For through your darkness light was gifted to these mortal lands.

Then on some blessed morning in that lifetime yet to be,

While riding through a field, I'll see you and you'll see me.

--- 

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Here ends the Lay of the Conqueror

(Trans. by Phantom Bard 3/2004)


End file.
